Growing up among rows of purple haze carrots, delicate Mara des Bois strawberries and corn sweet enough to eat raw, Makoto Chino might have been one of the best-fed kids in America.
He would see celebrated chefs like Julia Child and Alice Waters visiting his family's Southern California farm and learning from his father Tom Chino about the painstaking attention to quality and experimentation. The chefs would sign the kitchen wall in homage to the work of the Japanese-American family.
There was never a guarantee that Makoto, Tom's only child, would carry on with the farm. When asked about his son's plans, Tom would utter the Japanese phrase to convey resignation: "shoganai," or "it can't be helped."